Globalization Is Narrowing the Wealth Gap, One Nation at a Time

Up through the 1980s, the blessings of the Industrial Revolution seemed largely confined to a handful of countries in Western Europe, East Asia, the U.S., Australia and Canada. But in the past three decades, there has been a sea change, and developing countries have made great strides in catching up. Although inequality has risen within some nations, at the global level it’s going down:

Much of this catch-up is happening in countries that are still largely poor, such as India or Indonesia. To an economist -- or someone who cares about alleviating the suffering of the world’s poorest people – this still represents a miracle. But a skeptic of globalization might wonder whether it can really be called a success if broad middle-class living standards still remain the exclusive privilege of a handful of nations, many of them former colonial powers.